by Kate Fazzini
hack-a-thon
hackers
2016 US election and
banks and
China and
cybersecurity and
defined
early days of
Estonia and
GM cars and
government vs. private-sector jobs
NOW Bank and
public impression of
Romania and
Russia and
SOCs and
TechSolu and
See also Captain Crunch; cybersecurity
hashing
healthcare
Hestenes, Magnus
Himelman, Sigmar “Sig”
Home Depot
Hussain, Junaid
identity and access management
identity theft
See also fraud
impact
incidents
defined
incident management
incident response
industrial control system
information assurance
insider threats
See also outsider threats
insider trading
Insite
integrity
See also data integrity
internet
bots and
fraud and
security
See also cyberattacks; cybersecurity
intrusion
investigation
investment banking
Iran
ISIS
Israel
cybersecurity
hacking
identity theft
NOW Bank and
terrorism and
Izz ad-Din al Qassam Cyber Fighters
jargon files
Jason Bourne (fictional character)
Joe (the Kool-Aid Man)
Joel, Billy
Jones, Terry
Joseph, Michael
Joy, Bill
Kashgar, China
Key Bank
keys
Bitcoin and
defined
keylogger
key pair
private/public
ransomware and
session key
See also signatures
kill chain
Kravitz, Leonid
Kreutz, Henry
Kreutz, René
Krylov algorithm
Lanczos, Cornelius
Levin, Vladimir
Linux kernel one
Lisbeth Salander (fictional character)
logins
Ma Bell. See Bell Telephone Company
Mack, Charlie
Madison Square Garden
MAGIC facts
maiden names, data theft and
malicious code
See also antivirus software; botnets
malware
See also ransomware
man-in-the-middle attacks
Manning, Chelsea
Marcella, Joe
Marines
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Men’s Wearhouse
Misrachi, Ivan
mitigation
Morris worm
Mr. Robot (TV show)
Muhammad
National Bureau of Standards (NBS)
nation-state hackers
network segmentation
new census
New Order’s “Blue Monday”
New York Times
Norah
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
North Korea
NOW Bank
Belvedere, Tony, and
Chan, Caroline, and
China and
cyberattacks on
cybersecurity efforts
data theft
Fantastical Autographs and
global operations
Kreutz, René, and
lines of business
Mack, Charlie, and
Ramirez, Carl, and
Raykoff, Bob, and
Romanov, Valery, and
open-source information
Operation Ababil
Oren, Nat
outsider threats
See also insider threats
packets
Parliament cigarettes
passive attacks
passwords
PayPal
penetration
People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Unit 61398
Perl
personally identifiable information
phishing
Phone Phreaks
pornography websites
POTEMKJN
price differences
See also stock market
privacy
program management
Putin, Vladimir
Python
Railroad Club at MIT
Ramesh, Prem
Ramirez, Carl
ransomware
automated
Chou, Bo, and
explained
funding of hacker groups
Gunther, Mikael, and
Himelman, Sig, and
Kreutz, René, and
NOW Bank and
TechSolu and
See also WannaCry
Raykoff, Bob
Chan, Caroline, and
DeBuffet, Lydia, and
futurethreat and
Mack, Charlie, and
NOW Bank and
SOC and
reconnaissance
recovery
red team
redundancy
Reichlin, Dieter
resiliency
Rice, Condoleezza
risk
cybersecurity and
enterprise risk management
insider threats
mitigation
outsider threats
reputational risk
risk assessment
risk management
situational awareness and
Rogers, Michael
Romania
hackers
Himelman, Sig, and
Kreutz, René, and
ransomware
TechSolu and
Romanov, Valery
Roosevelt, Theodore
rootkits
See also exploit kits
rumormongering
Saudi Aramco
screenshots
security operations center (SOC)
security program management
sellout
Shakur, Tupac
Shiite Muslims
Signal
signatures
See also keys
Silk Road
See also China
situational awareness
Smitty, Edward
Snowden, Edward
social engineering
Social Security
software assurance
spam
spoofing
sports betting
spyware
Structured Query Language (SQL) injection
Standards Eastern Automatic Computer (SEAC)
Starbucks
Stiefel, Eduard
stock market
straitlaced
Subway
supply chain
Sydney Morning Herald
Syria
system administrators
tabletop exercises
Tallinn, Estonia
Tanninberg, Victor
Target
taxicab
TechSolu
building of
criminal activity
Gunther, Mikael, and
Kreutz, René, and
ransomware
reputation
terrorism
banks and
cyberoperations and
online networks
real-world attacks
See also cyberterrorism; ISIS; Izz ad-Din al Qassam Cyber Fighters; Operation Ababil
thr
eats
cybersecurity and
defined
incidents and
inquiries into
insider threats
outsider threats
passive attacks
risk management and
threat actors
threat analysis
threat assessment
vulnerability and
See also futurethreat
tickets
Times Square
Tom (intelligence head)
toolkit
See exploit kits
traffic list protocol
transmission control modules (TCMs)
trip wire
Trojan horse
Trump, Donald
Twitter
Ulbricht, Ross
unauthorized access
UNIVAC
US Army
US Department of Defense
US Department of Energy
US Department of Homeland Security
US Department of Justice
US Department of Treasury
username and password, cybersecurity and
Van Rossum, Guido
Venice cyber attack
virtual private networks (VPNs)
viruses
Vladivostok, Russia
vote counting
See also 2016 US presidential election
vulnerability
Wall, Larry
Wall Street Journal
Walmart
WannaCry attack
Washington, D.C., suburbs
weakness
“Welcome to the Jungle” (song)
Western District of Washington
WhatsApp
whistleblowers
whitelist
Wickr
Wi-Fi
WikiLeaks
Windows
Works Projects Administration
worms
YouTube
About the Author
Kate Fazzini is a cybersecurity reporter for CNBC and formerly reported on cybersecurity for The Wall Street Journal. She previously served as a principal in the cybersecurity practice at Washington, D.C.–based Promontory Financial Group, now a division of IBM. Prior to that, she served as a vice president in cybersecurity operations at JPMorgan Chase. Fazzini teaches in the applied intelligence program at Georgetown University. She lives in New York City. You can sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Epigraph
Before: The Swallows
Where we are introduced to some of the landmark events that set the stage for the book.
Preface: Kingdom of Lies
Where we learn about the variety of lies we will encounter on our journey.
1. The Futurethreat
We look back to the early days of some of the people perpetrating cyberthreats and their opposites in this book.
2. The Charlatan
Where we learn that the upshot of a major cyberattack against the financial sector is that cash-strapped cybersecurity executives see a budget increase. But even a hiring spree has its downsides.
3. The Wall
Where we meet some of the criminals who are attacking the financial sector and witness the uphill battle facing large organizations as they try to respond.
4. The Baby
Where we consider how a long-term strategy, by Russia and others, to tacitly allow cybercrime in exchange for the information and expertise of their criminals may bear strange fruit.
5. The Italians
We begin to see how the cybercriminal world, devoid of physical borders, and media misinterpretations of cyber events inform and misinform our view of cybercrime.
6. The Gig Economy
We meet more hackers and see how some have managed to convert their cybercriminal expertise into legitimate work. Though many find it hard to leave their old ways behind.
7. The Tryout
We learn how banks and nation-states strategize to capture the best up-and-coming hackers, from New York to China and in between.
8. The Father
We see how hackers struggle with the pains of life, including parenthood, death, and even getting hacked themselves.
9. The Teenager
In Romania, we watch as a young university student makes a foolish teenager’s gamble, with a twist.
10. The Medium
We discover the long history of connections between intelligence work, foreign influence campaigns, and how kinetic misinformation has gone digital.
11. The Lovers
Again in the Transylvanian countryside, we discover it may be too late for a teenager in a small town who has gotten in way over her head in the cybercriminal underground.
12. The Researcher
We meet a hacker for hire who is one of the good guys, as he follows an intriguing lead from Helsinki to Bucharest.
13. The Volunteers
Criminals don’t always offer themselves and their skills willingly when their governments come knocking—and this creates an intriguing conflict.
14. The Mother
Even hackers must sometimes answer to one of the world’s most powerful forces: mom.
15. The Ghost
People, machines, and companies all are haunted by the past, whether it is a traumatic event, a bad merger, or an executive clash. This is how some cope. Or don’t.
16. The Recruiters
Where we ask, in what direction does a young hacker go when he or she wants to grow up and get a real job? Considering the overwhelming lack of professionals currently working in the field, there is a space for everyone.
17. The Insider Threat
Intelligence professionals make up a significant portion of cybersecurity staff today. How hard is it to journey from intriguing foreign fields to the sober offices of corporate America?
18. The Terrorist
What happens when criminals don’t cooperate with their demanding governments but choose a transnational terrorist organization to latch on to instead.
19. The Long Trip
Even for cybercriminals, it’s possible to go down a better path, and sunlight—in limited quantities—provides the best disinfectant.
20. The Reason
Why do cybercriminals do what they do? We learn that maybe it doesn’t fucking matter.
21. The Spaniard
Where we learn that in the cleansing sunshine of Malaga on the Costa del Sol, even cybercriminals who think they’re irredeemable can get a second chance.
22. The Project Manager
In the end, no matter where you come from, what crimes you’ve committed, or how many lives you’ve saved and what titles you’ve acquired, you’re really just a glorified project manager.
23. The Reporter
Where we see our sole representative from media struggle to come to terms with the fact that, to paraphrase Thomas Wolfe, sometimes you leave the SOC and sometimes the SOC leaves you, but you can’t go back to the SOC again.
Epilogue: We Didn’t Start the Fire
A reminder that there are so many more stories left to tell.
Note
Appendix A: Glossary of Cyberterms
Where we are given technical material to induce restful sleep.
Appendix B: Epilogue Explained
A brief journey among the hacker nerds.
Sources
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
Index
About the Author
Copyright
KINGDOM OF LIES. Copyright © 2019 by Kate Fazzini. All rights reserved.
For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
“Domestic Mysticism” from A Hunger by Lucie Brock-Broido, copyright © 1988 by Lucie Brock-Broido. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Cover photographs: texture © Abstractor/Shutterstock.com; people © Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock.com
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Names: Fazzini, Kate, author.
Title: Kingdom of lies: unnerving adventures in the world of cybercrime / Kate Fazzini.
Description: New York: St. Martin’s Press, [2019]
Identifiers: LCCN 2019000546|ISBN 9781250201348 (hardcover)|ISBN 9781250255235 (international, sold outside the U.S., subject to rights availability)|ISBN 9781250201355 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Computer crimes.|Hackers.
Classification: LCC HV6773 .F39 2019|DDC 364.16/8—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019000546
eISBN 9781250201355
Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at [email protected].
First U.S. Edition: June 2019
First International Edition: June 2019